Beautiful, ripe Chassagne, with fruit aromas and notes of hazelnut and nuts, but it doesn't lose anything from Lamy's -full of intensity- style in the mouth. Quite generous and dense but with acidity and smoky mineral notes that balance it beautifully. Lovely harmony and a sense of quality as if it comes from a higher classified vineyard. The fermentation...
Another Olivier Lamy "energy bomb" coming from such a steep vineyard where everything is done by hand. The stumps were planted in 1964 and it is essentially the slope of St-Aubin bordering Puligny-Montrachet and has a south-southwest exposure. The soils are on a limestone substrate and give tremendous levels of energy and concentration to the Chardonnay....
A pure capture of Olivier's style that plays with the high energy levels in his wines. There is an introversion in this particular vineyard but also an austerity compared to the more exuberant examples from Burgundy (see Meursault for example). But on the other hand, the fruit is really full of finesse and supports the freshness and minerality. 12 months...
The grapes are picked manually so that they can be sorted by bunches with passerillage (concentration of sugars on the vine) or noble rot if the year has caused it. This is a nectar which, in a tremendously skilful way, brings to the glass at the same time sweetness, lightness, freshness and extraordinary levels of complexity. Candied pineapple, peach jam...
The recipe for creating great wines is simple but demands excessive amounts of labor both in the vineyard and the winery. The dazzling, airy, crystal mineral character of Violaine sets the bar very high and exalts the value of small-scale producers of this appellation who like to do things differently. This is like going in a garden of fruits of...